1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a history information recording device for recording an operation history and the like of an image display equipment, and an image display equipment that includes the history information recording device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, image display equipments, such as TV receivers (television receivers), have been increasingly becoming diverse in terms of function, performance, and other aspects. Such diversity allows consumers planning to purchase an image display equipment to select a product that fits their own styles (e.g., the situation in which the image display equipment is used).
Users sometimes return image display equipments they purchased for various reasons including some kind of dissatisfaction with the product. When this happens, the manufacturer of a returned image display equipment would need to find out what the user's dissatisfaction was about in order to gain insight for improving function and quality in a new model of the product.
However, users do not always state the specifics of the reasons for dissatisfaction or return clearly. Some image display equipments address the issue by recording operation history information (history information), such as the number of times the equipment has been turned on and the total equipment running time, on a built-in flash memory or other recording media.
If a user returns an image display equipment of this type, history information recorded on the flash memory may be displayed on the screen of the image display equipment with, for example, a special keystroke. An inspector or other persons can thus check information regarding how the image display equipment has been used by the user, and infer or study the sources of dissatisfaction on the part of the user.
The above-mentioned type of image display equipment that is designed to display history information can usually display history information correctly but will not be able to do so if the image display equipment has lost the ability for normal screen display (for example, due to a damaged display panel). Replacing the panel may give back the ability to display history information to the image display equipment. In practice, however, the replacing requires additional steps such as preparing a new panel and changing the old panel with the new one, and will be concluded as not favorable. An image display equipment is therefore desirably designed such that history information of the image display equipment can be checked without being displayed on the screen of the image display equipment.